An evaluation of a "time tunnel" display format for the presentation of temporal information

The time tunnel display design technique combines the benefits of configural displays (salient visual properties corresponding to critical domain semantics) with the benefits of temporal information (i.e., the value of variables and properties over time). In Experiment 1 a baseline configural display and a time tunnel display were evaluated using real-time measures of system control, fault detection, and state estimation in a simulated process control task. The results provided little evidence in support of the time tunnel format. In Experiment 2 access to the temporal context was limited: Participants performed the detection and estimation tasks with static "snapshots" of system states that had been generated in Experiment 1. The overall pattern of results indicates that the time tunnel display was more effective for state estimation tasks than was the baseline configural display and or a trend display. Issues in the design of temporal displays are discussed, including representational formats and the choice of temporal time frames. Issues in the evaluation of temporal displays are also discussed, including the role of temporal information and the critical nature of participants' access to this information. Actual or potential applications of this research include design techniques for improving graphical displays and methodological insights to guide future evaluations.